1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to bridges attachable to pool cues.
2. Description of the Art
In the games of pool and billiards, a cue stick is used by players to strike and propel a cue ball toward other balls on the pool or billiards table. The player uses one hand to support the cue stick adjacent the tip of the cue stick when aligning the cue stick with the cue ball to propel the cue ball in a desired direction.
Frequently, the close proximity of other balls to the cue ball or the long distance of the cue ball from a side rail of a pool or billiards table makes it difficult for the player to place his or her hand in a stable position to support the cue stick.
In these situations, a bridge typically mounted on the tip end of another cue stick is employed to support the cue stick to enable the player to reach and strike the cue ball.
The most common type of bridge is a rigid one-piece member having at least one and usually a plurality of spaced notches formed on the top and side edges. Each notch forms a support surface which allows sliding movement of the cue stick through the bridge while the bridge supports the cue stick. The generally rectangular form of such a bridge coupled with notches formed in various side edges enables the bridge to be oriented horizontally or vertically to enable a player to selectively support the tip of a cue stick at different heights above the surface of the table.
In order to provide greater versatility in supporting the tip of a cue stick, bridges have also been formed with movable components which enable the height and/or lateral position of the cue stick supporting notches to be selectively varied. For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 196,568 and 2,817,525, the bridge includes a rigid bottom piece and a movable upper piece which is slidably and angularly positionable with respect to the bottom piece. A screw fastener is employed to fix the upper piece in the desired position with respect to the lower piece. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,576,324 discloses an adjustable cue bridge in which a planar strip member is movably mounted in a rigid one-piece bridge member. Interconnecting lugs and recesses enable the planar strip to be selectively extended from either side of the bridge member. U.S. Pat. No. 199,105 discloses a bridge in which a irregularly shaped member having a plurality of circumferentially spaced cue supporting notches is rotatably mounted on a rigid base piece. The rotatable member is rotated to the desired position and fixed in position by a threaded screw which extends through the rotatable member and the base into the supporting cue stick. The rotatable member has an irregular shape thereby enabling the cue supporting notches therein to be positioned above the base piece at variably selectable heights.
While these previously devised cue bridges provide flexibility in selectively positioning a cue supporting notch at a desired height or lateral position above the table, most suffer from the disadvantage that the adjustable component of such bridges must be fixed in the desired position by means of a threaded fastener thereby requiring a screwdriver or other tool to rearrange the components of the adjustable bridge. Further, each of the adjustable bridges as well as the conventional one-piece bridge has an overall size which makes it inconvenient to easily store the bridge in the pocket of a user when not in use.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an adjustable cue bridge for removable attachment to a cue stick which is collapsible to a small compact size for storage while still being expandable into different configurations for use in various playing conditions.